Lemon Tree Blog

Lemon Tree Manor

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:17:30 -0500

As a former student of interior design and an aspiring junior designer at a prestigious firm in Toronto I had the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful homes of the city. I reviewed and renewed floor plans, meticulously placed furniture, poured over colour palettes, and was witness to the transformation from dark and cluttered to bright and beautiful. Occasionally I assisted on projects in which I saw homes rise from plans on paper to stately structures erected in stone, wood and glass.

Since then, my chosen career has obviously undergone a dramatic change and the medium in which I work is now decidedly edible compared to the former. However, my latest project resounds with notes from my past and I laboured over it with great satisfaction at the merging of two arts into one. Who would have thought building a gingerbread house could be so poetic?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was asked by the Kimberley Seldon Design Group to design a house for the 7th annual Habitat for Humanity Gingerbread House Build and jumped on the opportunity with enthusiasm. I knew immediately that the structure should be elegant, classic, but simple, considering the “client” I was designing for.

The cookie walls began to rise and the smell of chocolate and gingerbread filled my kitchen. Nothing could be more satisfying to me. The completed structure looks delicious enough to live in. This isn’t like the gingerbread activities we partook in as kids. This was a full-fledged structural confectionary design-build project and I executed it with delight. I have dubbed the property “Lemon Tree Manor”.

Speaking of gingerbread and all things Christmassy, I have noticed that the colourful autumn leaves are no longer covering the trees, but are strewn across every home owner’s lawn and that shopping centres are now openly admitting that Christmas shopping must begin yesterday or else you’ve already missed out on the best gifts. Tinsel is glittering on lamp posts, christmas lights are twinkling in more than one storefront display, and all we’re missing is the snow, although many of you probably aren’t really missing it, but rather dreading it (talk to the home owners who are currently raking leaves a.k.a clearing space for snow banks).

Well, hopefully you’re getting into the spirit of it and you won’t mind my mentioning that Gabriela Delworth (whom I mentioned in an earlier post) is hosting a five-day Marie De Fete on her website beginning November 18th. She’ll be featuring different inspiring artists’ work and stories each day and I was happy to oblige the request to include my macarons on the 19th. Look for new photos of Christmas inspired macaron flavours that you will be able to sample at the Market beginning in December.

This past weekend at the market I took an “au naturel” approach with the macarons. Brightly coloured pastries stepped aside for flavours that lent themselves to neutral coloured almond shells. Pistachios provided a subtle green tinge, ground espresso beans flecked white macaron shells, and hazelnuts dotted the domes of chestnut caramel filled cookies. The effect was lovely. Macarons need no embellishment to be simply beautiful.

I had several requests to bring back the raspberry macaron as soon as possible. One requestee was a 4-year-old blonde hair, blue eyed beauty who I simply cannot refuse. This coming weekend you can look forward to seeing raspberry, lemon poppyseed, and chocolate passionfruit macarons. Hope to see you there.

Lemon Tree on Cityline

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 19:24:44 -0500

First, the biggest news of the week: on Thursday, November 12th, interior designer Kimberley Seldon will be introducing Lemon Tree macarons as her favourite Christmas gift under $25 on Cityline. The show’s audience will also be taking home small packages of macarons.

You can watch the show at 10am on CityTV to see the special holiday flavours and gift boxes. I’m really excited to start the Christmas season with such a great event!

This past weekend was practically a macaron miracle. From Monday to Thursday I laboured away at batch after batch of failed pastry shells, reluctantly discarding hours of work. Often the weather can wreak havoc on the process and last week was very humid. My batters were turning out too thin and runny.

After much trial and error, a few careful adjustments, and by drawing on a reserve of optimism and motivation, Friday’s efforts were not wasted. Each perfect little macaron had it’s lovely bubbled foot and smooth-domed top, just in time for Halloween at the St. Lawrence Market.

I featured two new flavours that I’m extremely happy with. The first, Cassis and Mixed Berry, was a macaron shell flavoured with Creme de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) and filled with a white chocolate and mixed berry whipped ganache. The second, Pecan Praline, was a vanilla bean shell sprinkled with pecans and filled with a pecan praline buttercream. I’m so satisfied with this last combination that I’ve deemed it the latest addition to the available-all-year flavour menu.

These are pictures of my display at the market this weekend and my limited edition halloween macaron gift bags and boxes.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:46:46 -0400

Here’s what’s been happening:
The past few weeks (months!) have been dotted with birthdays, notably my father-in-law’s, and my brother-in-law’s. I’m usually the go-to person to make the cakes for such occasions but, not only have I had my hands full with the business, I had an emergency situation about a week ago with an inoperable oven. The weekend was fast approaching, the repair man was not available, and the macarons were not being made!

I had to think fast, so I enlisted the help of my mother-in-law’s convection oven. I packed up all my equipment (macarons are a high-maintenance dessert and require more accessories than a baby) and blew into my mother-in-law’s kitchen like a tornado. Every inch of counter space was soon covered with mixers, pans, piping bags, spatulas, mixing bowls, almond flour, and sugar and the place was filled with the sounds of culinary phenomenon (although I don’t think that’s quite the terminology used by those who were not yet awake that morning).

I soon discovered the decided benefits of being displaced. My grandparents-in-law were visiting for the month so Halmonee (that’s the korean word for grandmother) became my volunteer kitchen assistant. She washed dishes, stacked macarons, helped keep up kitchen morale, and all the while we never exchanged a word of english. But it hardly mattered because we were bonding though baking and I was grateful for her company.

It all went off faultlessly and I was able to complete the weeks’ work and even make a couple little treats for the birthday boys.

Meanwhile, I’ve been having a great time on Saturdays at the market. You’ll notice I’ve made a couple changes to the website in terms of ordering macarons and the flavours that are available. These changes are born of what I’ve learned from you while selling at the market. The new gift boxes (one with 9 macarons, and one with 12), were received with enthusiasm the day I introduced them and I was encouraged to make them available from now on. I’ve also posted a menu of year-round flavours on the Order page and created a Flavour Calendar to show which specialty flavours will be featured each month.

And, although macarons may be my specialty, I’ve introduced a new item for sale: old fashioned cookie mixes. Pre-measured ingredients all contained in a beautiful glass jar complete with baking instructions. I’m still developing different combinations of flavours, but white chocolate butterscotch cookies and jewel cookies were on sale last weekend at the market.

I was contacted a couple weeks ago by one Gabriela Delworth, a product designer and creativity connoisseur, who tried my macarons and has written about them here. She has a fascination with all things Marie-Antoinette and so my display of macarons at the market caught her attention. Thank you Gabriela!

Here’s what’s coming up:
This coming Saturday is Halloween and I love any occasion that calls for a new flavour of macaron. I’ll be featuring Cassis (blackcurrant) macarons alongside my popular pumpkin macarons. I’d also like to include a coconut macaron but I’m anticipating the misunderstandings when I try to explain that these are not coconut macaroons (“Ceci n’est pas une pipe”).

The following weekend, Saturday November 7th, will mark the 205th anniversary of the St. Lawrence Market. To celebrate, each vendor is featuring an item on sale for $1.75 or $11.75. I, too, will be featuring a $1.75 package of macarons so don’t miss the opportunity to buy them aplenty.

While Christmas may not be the foremost thought in your mind just yet, it has been sneaking into my planning frequently of late. Specifically, I have been asked by the Kimberley Seldon Design Group to build and decorate this years’ gingerbread house being donated to the Habitat for Humanity Gingerbread house build and I’m thrilled to accept the challenge. The houses will be auctioned off in December along with several other custom creations. You can also participate in the build by signing up here. No hammers necessary. Watch for more information about the KSDG/Lemon Tree house in the next month.

And now I think I’ll kick off some Christmas baking so I can bring you some festive photographs in preparation for the season. It’s the most wonderful time of the year (soon).

Give Thanks

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:07:22 -0400

I have so much to be thankful for this weekend. I spent the last two weekends at the St. Lawrence Market handing out samples of macarons and selling several different flavours of them as well. The turn out has been outstanding and I’m so encouraged by everyone who came down to support and to taste. To those of you who I caught by surprise, as well, just the look on your faces as you experienced the flavour of the macarons was worth the work that went into making them.

In just two weeks I have met so many people who have lent their advice, shared encouragement, and shown a great curiosity and interest in macarons. It’s thrilling to meet so many people who are already familiar with the petit fours - either from their travels to France (and Japan!) or from other Toronto bakeries. It means many of you already appreciate them for the delicacy that they are.

This weekend, in honour of Thanksgiving, I featured four flavours of macarons including caramel, pumpkin, maple, and the ever-popular vanilla chai. The results were more than satisfying. Based on your comments from the sampling (and from those of you who couldn’t wait to break into the packages you had purchased) pumpkin seemed to be a really big hit. It will make a repeat appearance in a couple weeks for halloween.

Many of you asked about ordering online. With Christmas on the horizon, macarons make the perfect gift and a beautiful dessert to bring to holiday parties. I’m working to provide you with a standard order form that you’ll be able to submit online for easy purchasing, but until then, please call or email me to make your orders. You can purchase a minimum of 1 dozen macarons of which I’m always creating new flavours. You can also speak to me about custom wrapping for gifts or party favours. You’ll be able to pick up your orders at either Lively Life on the lower leve of the St. Lawrence Market or Alex Farm on Danforth at Chester Avenue.

Next weekend I’ll set up shop as usual just outside Lively Life on the lower level of the St. Lawrence Market and there will be new flavours of macarons available, including Grand Marnier and (a very North American concept) chocolate peanutbutter.

I hope to see some familiar faces and I’m always glad to see new ones. Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and your sense of adventure when it comes to experiencing something new. Happy Thanksgiving!

Season of Change

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:31:00 -0400

It’s a time for new beginnings in every way. On September 7th I turned a new twenty-something age and on September 8th I officially registered Lemon Tree Patisserie and became the sole proprietor of a business. It’s very exciting to know that what I put into my business is what I’ll get out of it. Like having an infant, I’ll nurture it, watch it grow, and hopefully it will begin to be self-sufficient. I’m sure it will include many surprises on the way.

Speaking of newborns, to kick off the beginning of my entrepreneurial endeavours, I decided a beautiful cake for my sister’s baby shower this weekend would be the perfect debut. I also volunteered to provide take-home favours for guests and what’s more appropriate than sugar cookies cut in the shapes of sail boats and baby onesies?

I carefully mapped out the week’s schedule for prep, allowing myself space for the other food items to be made ready, gifts to be purchased & wrapped, and clever games to be planned. I was very pleased on Friday evening when I discovered I had finished everything ahead of schedule and Saturday morning I would only need to pack up the car.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny with a lovely, crisp breeze that more than hinted at a new season’s early arrival. I intended to sleep in, but my week of early morning prep had ruined me. JL and I sat down for a leisurely breakfast before he went off to work. I was just contemplating what to do with my extra time before the shower when the phone rang. It was a fateful call.

Lauren, whose house we were having the shower at, announced abruptly that the shower was cancelled! My mind flitted momentarily to the large cake taking up half the fridge and the many sailboat & baby onesie cookies occupying most of the freezer.

“Cancelled? Lauren, are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but your sister is in labour. She’s having the baby right now!”

I must have screeched and then suddenly the “leisurely” morning was a flurry of activity. Calls were made (“yes, she’s having the baby... yes, it’s very early to be having the baby... no, we we’d better not move the shower to the hospital, I think she’ll have her hands full”). Bags were packed of everything I could think of in my flustered state. I made surprisingly logical choices, considering. My sister really hadn’t anticipated she’d be in labour 7 weeks early so when she left for the hospital, she brought only her purse, thinking she’d be in and out in an hour.

I arrived at the hospital expecting to follow my ears to the sounds of a labour wing (I’ve always imagined these types of events to be very loud) or at least travel with the flow of rushing doctors and nurses who would surely all be on alert to my sister. Instead I found myself navigating through a very quiet labyrinth (don’t people have emergencies on weekends?), an obstacle course designed especially to frustrate those rushing from leisurely mornings into frantic baby chaos.

Obstacle course included, it took me just about an hour from my house to the waiting room where my mom was already waiting and anxiously trying to dig any information out of my brother-in-law’s nervous looking younger brother. My mom turned her attention to me and he happily retreated across the room.

It was only moments later that a proud and dazed looking brand new father walked in and announced his unbelievable news. Within ten minutes of arriving I suddenly had a new title: Aunty Kelly!

Because the baby was so early he weighed a mere 3lbs 9oz. But what a baby he is! Every perfect finger and toe in just the right place, a beautiful little head of curly light hair (his father’s), and surprisingly long limbs (his mother’s). He may be extremely tiny, but he’s exquisite.

Because he needs to be so carefully monitored, none of us, including my sister, have been able to spend much time with him yet. But mommy and baby are on the road to recovery and we’re all praying for their health.

Later in the evening, as I drove toward home, the sun was low in the west and I felt certain that the spectacle of fiery colours it was radiating was at least in part a celebration of the days events.

As I settled onto the couch at home and retraced the events of the day, my mind landed a little regretfully on the cake that now remains in half of my refrigerator and the cookies that live indefinitely in most of my freezer. Since they never reached their full potential, I’m happy that my debut can at least be shared here with you. And, fittingly, it was my brand new nephew, not a cake, who stole the show.

We all have our carefully laid out plans and ideas, but sometimes the things we don’t plan for turn out to be the most life changing. How humbling. And on that note, so begins Lemon Tree Patisserie, in which I would be disappointed if it wasn’t the source of many life changing surprises.